Learning under your gaze: the mediating role of affective arousal between perceived direct gaze and memory performance

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that cognitive performance can be affected by the presence of an observer and self-directed gaze. We investigated whether the effect of gaze direction (direct vs. downcast) on verbal memory is mediated by autonomic arousal. Male participants responded with enhanced affective arousal to both male and female storytellers' direct gaze which, according to a path analysis, was negatively associated with the performance. On the other hand, parallel to this arousal-mediated effect, males' performance was affected by another process impacting the performance positively and suggested to be related to effort allocation on the task. The effect of this process was observed only when the storyteller was a male. The participants remembered more details from a story told by a male with a direct vs. downcast gaze. The effect of gaze direction on performance was the opposite for female storytellers, which was explained by the arousal-mediated process. Surprisingly, these results were restricted to male participants only and no effects of gaze were observed among female participants. We also investigated whether the participants' belief of being seen or not (through an electronic window) by the storyteller influenced the memory and arousal, but this manipulation had no effect on the results.

Audience effects: what can they tell us about social neuroscience, theory of mind and autism?

“…In fact, direct gaze from a real person leads to changes in skin conductance response compared to conditions without direct gaze (Myllyneva and Hietanen 2015a). Changes in arousal from direct gaze may also account for performance in a memory task (Helminen et al 2015). These studies support Zajonc’s claim that being in the presence of another person leads to change in arousal, but do not rule out a parallel role for mentalising processes.…”

Socially Communicative Eye Contact and Gender Affect Memory

“…Some of these studies report that memory for an image of face (Hood et al., 2003; Mason et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2006) and for words (Fry and Smith, 1975; Kelley and Gorham, 1988; Macrae et al., 2002; Falck-Ytter et al., 2014) is improved when these stimuli are associated with direct gaze (though see Beattie, 1981; Conty et al., 2010; Nemeth et al., 2013). In the investigations that have used live people as stimuli, a speaker’s eye contact has been associated with improved memory for what the speaker has said (Otteson and Otteson, 1980; Sherwood, 1987; Fullwood and Doherty-Sneddon, 2006; Helminen et al., 2016). Some of the earliest studies examined how children’s academic performance could be affected by a teacher’s eye contact (Otteson and Otteson, 1980; Sherwood, 1987).…”

“…For instance, Sherwood (1987) suggested that learning could be enhanced in a classroom when instructors made eye contact with members in the audience. In a more recent study, male participants remembered more details from a story told by a male storyteller who looked at them relative to a storyteller who looked away, but female participants did not (Helminen et al., 2016). The research using images and live people as stimuli seems to indicate that eye contact enhances the processing and retention of information.…”

“…An important limitation of all past studies using live speakers is that researchers have generally not measured and/or systematically manipulated when a given participant actually experiences eye contact with the investigator. For example, in past studies, listeners were normally exposed to either a speaker who never made eye contact with the listener(s) in an audience or a speaker who periodically made eye contact with some undefined subset of listeners (Otteson and Otteson, 1980; Sherwood, 1987; Fullwood and Doherty-Sneddon, 2006; Helminen et al., 2016). As such, it is unclear how much eye contact a listener actually made with the speaker (if they experienced any eye contact at all).…”

Does the implicit models of leadership influence the scanning of other-race faces in adults?

“…Unfortunately, the gaze provides more information than the brain can process and thus, relies on ‘selective visual attention’ to cope [26]. As a result, individuals are looking for gaze signals from the eye region to understand a person’s focus of attention, mental state, and intentions [82]. Thus, the findings of two positive and significant relationships between prototype of sensitivity, and (a) the nasion, and (b) the upper nose regions are not surprising.…”